I put the pieces of the Golden "aside", broke the strongback down, cleaned up a bit, and put the O.I. on sawhorses.
I decided to add a strip of 4 oz. glass at the bow & stern.
Last year, I did relatively light sanding before varnishing. This year, I went right at it with the R.O.S, and realized just how thick the varnish is! In the future, I may sand more before each re-varnishing. More sanding results in hitting the fiberglass in more places, but I'm re-epoxying the bare spots.
Repairing the bare-glass spots went well. I applied one coat of epoxy, scraped lightly, then another coat of epoxy, wider than the first, before sanding. Blended in well.
Varnishing went well, using my favorite masking technique. I thought that the weather was un-cooperative: occasional rain and 60% humidity in the basement, but all coats dried in 24 hours. Another discovery: it is the thinner that stanks so bad, not the varnish. First coat 50/50, second coat about 70/30, and third coat about 85/15. The third coat barely smells.
I have decided not to finish building this kayak, at least not at this time.
I simply could not get the deck and hull joined. The hull spread apart at the sheer, and three ideas that I had for bringing the parts together didn't work.
After meltdowns, I realized that there were just too many errors and things that I didn't like about the build, to go on. Its getting late, and I have to get the Outer Island ready for the water.
What I Don't Like About it:
Ugly. My idea for Plain-Jane stripping didn't really work, visually. The cockpit opening came out a strange shape. The actual design doesn't appeal to me, anyway.
Weight and Size. This was finally supposed to be my ultra-light-weight, "grab and go" boat, but I did things that made it heavier than I wanted it to be, and it's longer than I visualized.
I didn't really like using Joe's system for the strongback setup. I'm not as confident about the alignment.
I got started late, and felt time pressure since about New Year's.
Well, there's always Next Year 😉
I still have the forms for the Dark Star, and I might consider it, but not before re-reading my post about why I didn't. 😯 Looked back at the Cape Ann Storm SLT-I didn't build it last time, because I was afraid that I weighed too much, but it wouldn't be the first time that I messed up by letting Kayak Foundry statistics tell me what to do.
It may be the case that I have already peaked in Kayak Building skills. 😉
Fist discovery this morning was that the roll of fiberglass was not wide enough to cover the hull, even though I thought I had figured it out. A patch was necessary.
I warmed the resin for several hours in a hot water bath. I mixed up 1-1/2 cups, and started working on the stern section. I expected the resin to be warm, but I became aware that it was getting warmer on its own! Surprising, since I figured that the RAKA resin with the non-blush hardener would be slow-curing under any conditions-but I was holding a 16 oz. cup full of mixed resin. Panicking, I immediately dumped it on the hull. It was actually beginning to give off steam at this point. The area where I dumped it had a cloudy, weird look, which I think was caused by the resin becoming too stiff to saturate the glass properly. I thought about ripping it off to start over, but instead worked on it with a hair dryer. Much air came out, and eventually it looked almost right. I decided to live with it rather than to waste that much fiberglass and epoxy.
I went to smaller mixes, and did the rest of the hull with good results.
I did two "generous" fill coats, then scraped & sanded. I hit the fiberglass lightly in a few spots. I made a few minor discoveries. I had been in the habit of trying to skim on very thin coats of epoxy with a scraper, a squeegee, pieces of foam, etc, and always had trouble with air. I found that the Lowly Chip Brush puts a thicker coat on the boat, and for some reason, tipping off the job with the brush gets rid of air. It might be the case that my experience actually messed me up-if I had been slathering a thick coat with a chip brush, I'd have gotten better coats! I hit the glass badly in some spots on the last build, because I had been relying on the R.O.S. too much, and it was cutting off the high spots.
However, after hitting the glass in more places, I opted for two more skim coats of FLAG resin.
The year's time in between builds give me time to forget just how much work some of the tasks are! Setting the hull back up on the strongback and fairing the hull took the greater part of the day.
I may have given up un perfectionism. In previous build, I have found flaws after the fact, and wondered why I let them go. I now realize that I let them go because of fatigue and impatience. I also got tired doing this job, and left a few things that could have been done better. It will still be a kayak, I will still use it, and I won't know if its good until I do.
